Avalon the legend lives

Description

Avalon, the legend lives is not only the single longest running mud on the internet, having been going since 1989, but it also remains one of the most profoundly unique games of it's type you'll find. While on the one hand, the principles of Avalon, play a character in a fantasy world, collecting equipment, gaining experience in a number of skills and rising in rank in your chosen class are fairly well known, on the other hand, in the ways Avalon executes these principles it works in a very different way to other muds out there.

Firstly, Avalon works entirely through it's players. Starting the game you will begin in one of four cities. The righteous Mercinae, the ruthless Thakria, the independent Parrius, or the proud Silverfalls. After a short introductory set of novice activities which range from hunting down herbs in the forest to cursing villages or spying on an enemy city, players will find themselves choosing to belong to one of a number of guilds or professions, Knight, Mage, Loremaster, Sorcerer, Bard, Thief, Seer, Ranger or druid. these provide players not only with a huge range of skills and abilities, but also with organisations to belong to, since in Avalon player's are advancing not just on their own behalf, but also on behalf of their city, guild, or their god should they choose to take holy orders.

Advancement is rather different than in most games, since where in other games pregenerated quests exist to gain players levels and experience, most of the things which need to be done to advance in Avalon are dependent upon other players. For example, to rise in rank in the city a player must perform a number of challenges given to them by city officials (who are themselves players), including talking to npcs, commanding troops, or perhaps working against other cities.

That being said, despite the heavy reliance on interacting with other players, the game also features a massive amount of activities and things to do, from solving riddles found in the environment to extensive crafting and farming (the loremaster profession is all about crafting), to commanding of armies from small legions to huge forces, fighting other players on behalf of your city, hunting animals, making potions, finding and enchanting different runes, and more. One aspect of Avalon indeed which is truly noteworthy is that many features of the environment won't become apparent until a player has the required skills to notice them, indeed one player described the game rather like an onion with many different layers since in avalon, even in areas you know well there is always something below the surface to discover.

Despite such a huge range of activities, one very welcome recent addition to Avalon is the player Mosaic. This provides a number of goals, challenges and exercises even following newbie school to help players get familiar with the game, make friends with their fellow Avalonians, and discover their place in the world, like the rest of Avalon, its description is wildly beautiful making attaining its goals almost an aesthetic exercise.

The game's writing style and world are particularly rich, with a detailed history and views of objects that are down right beautiful on occasion, indeed there are few muds out there which can provide quite as rich an experience for just wandering around and seeing things.

Updates to the game are continual, adding more complexity and detail, though unlike most other games events such as invasions, the rising of new gods or the blockading of a seaport all occur because of the interactions of organisations run by players, rather than the whims of the game's staff, though the staff aren't above throwing a few curves into the mix if they feel it will contribute to the onrunning history of the game.

Unfortunately, all this does come at something of a steep learning curve, particularly since Avalon is in some ways setup to be a more detailed game to play. For example there is no item shortening in the names of things, thus where in some other muds you could type "get ke fr bo" for "get key from box", in Avalon you will need the hole sentence. also, where in other role playing games and muds to cast a spell as a mage you'd simply type "cast light", in Avalon you will need to go through several steps such as calling spirits, drawing magic circles or making charms. Combat is similarly more complex, you can't just type "kill orc" and get away with it, since every swing of your weapon causes you to become unbalanced, meaning you need to take care what you do when and in what order, though fortunately this also means incoming text isn't too fast and blind players are not at any disadvantage.

You will also find the system of training and gaining abilities in Avalon rather different to other games, since you gain lessons simply by being online and can use them on any of your sskills, meaning this is one game which is not all about the grinding, though since the game comes with fascinating abilities, a large world to explore and some of the richest gameplay you will find, this lack of repetitive tasks is definitely a plus, especially since the multilayered nature of Avalon's activities means that the game very rarely feels static and when you achieve something you get a real sense of accomplishment.

Despite this complexity, the game has both a highly extensive and detailed help system, and also one of the friendliest communities you will find who will even demonstrate in person or answer questions for you. The game indeed follows a rather unique approach to roleplaying where rather than specifically separating out of character and in character discussions, anything you do or say is held to be in character, albeit you are still interacting with the world, (this sounds rather more complex to explain than it actually feels in practice).

the Avalon staff are extremely committed to making the game accessible, and have even provided This page which details some of the more common options and commands, as well as a plugin for Mushclient should people wish to use that client.

Avalon though not entirely free to play, has a rather different approach to payment than most other games, (hence the license type above). When you begin playing you will be given 10 hours of free play, which may well get you through the new player academy. Once this runs out you can either continue playing by purchicing a subscription, or obtaining sponsorship. Sponsorship occurs when another player or organization such as your city, guild or church effectively agrees to sponsor your subscription so that you can carry on playing the game for free. This is done because the benifit you will give to said organisation is worth the in game cost of maintaining your sponsorship, for example your city will gain renown and other benifits for anything you achieve or learn. Though this system might sound divisive, in practice the Avalon community are always willing to sponsor any new players, indeed once your time runs out you can still use the sponsorship channel to request sponsorship and people will generally be pleased to agree.

As an alternative to sponsorship, you can setup a subscription to play. Initially your subscription options will be limited to give you a feel for the game before committing too much financially, but later you can obtain either a bronze, silver or gold subscription for 8, 15 or 25 dollars a month. These come with faster lesson gain and some extra gold crowns as a gift, though nothing that a sponsored player couldn't get. Gold crowns are the game's donation currency and can be used within the game for different things from buying some special items which range from spectacles that can see any curse or poison, to a magical green glove that aides farming, to services such as restoring your arcana points or refilling your potion bottle with something useful. Again however, as with all aspects of Avalon, none of these trinkets or services are intended to make the game unfairly advantaged for paying players, indeed since Avalonian money can be converted into crowns it is even possible to buy trinkets and services in the game if you are rich enough.

To connect to the game, point your favourite mud client at avalon-rpg.com port 23.

Avalon is undoubtedly a very different game to what you've tried previously. it's emphasis on taking part in a huge world, with politics, economics, war and diplomacy, even going down to the local level of tax gathering or spying, or of guilds jockying for position and prestige. the complex activities, the distinct lack of grinding, it's definitely an experience, albeit one with something of a learning curve, still a learning curve it's well worth taking if your an adventurous player looking for something which differs from the usual hack n slash.